EE 4G Taxis Coming To London And Birmingham

EE has announced a deal to provide mobile broadband services in 50 taxis in London and Birmingham as part of its efforts to showcase the benefits of 4G.

The free service will be available for three months in 40 taxis in London and ten in Birmingham, with the hackney carriages easily identifiable by their aqua livery.

Passengers eager to use the service must send EE a text message from their smartphone and use a personalised code to access the wireless hotspot created by a MiFi router.

Digital taxis

At the moment, EE is UK’s only 4G operator and the company says that its research shows that 200,000 black cab journeys are made in London every day, but more than 40 percent of smartphone owners have complained of being late for a meeting because of traffic. EE adds that one in five commuters say that their day would be less stressful if they had Internet access in a taxi.

“The first motorised black cabs hit the streets in 1901, nearly 70 years before the first smartphone was available to consumers, now we are bringing this icon of British transport into the 21st century with a 4G make-over,” said Spencer McHugh, Director of Brand, EE. “We hope this trial will demonstrate the benefits of a superior online experience as users can browse, download, catch up on emails, Tweet and check Facebook literally at the speed of light. We can’t make taxi journeys any faster but we can certainly speed up people’s smartphones!”

Steve McCaskill is editor of TechWeekEurope and ChannelBiz. He joined
as a reporter in 2011 and covers all areas of IT, with a particular interest in telecommunications, mobile and networking, along with sports technology.